Trip Report - Gulf Coast National Seashore, Davis Bayou

Our trip to the Gulf Coast National Seashore was in two parts, and this is the first one. First we went to Davis Bayou Campground near Ocean Springs, Mississippi and explored that area, then we went to Fort Pickens Campground near Pensacola, Florida and explored around there, which will be discussed in a later post.

Our first day at Davis Bayou had absolutely beautiful weather. Clearly, this isn't always the case, as evidenced by all the closed trails thanks to Hurricane Zeta, which hit October 24-November 2, 2020. We talked to the host at Davis Bayou Campground and were told that there was only one, unmarked trail open at all inside the park, but his description of where to find it didn't help, so we did other things in the area. I couldn't follow where he was saying to park, let alone where you would have to walk in order to find the trailhead. Without the kids, I might have made more of an effort, but no point wandering aimlessly when there is so much else to do.

You could see evidence of hurricane damage everywhere, with downed boardwalks and blocked off trails. According to the camp host, it might be six months before they are repaired and usable again.

I made quesadillas this morning for breakfast. This was really easy over the stove, and delicious. Then I spent some time collecting firewood so we could have a fire that night. There are a lot of branches around the campsite and I got a pretty respectable pile of kindling plus some bigger stuff.

Even though we knew the hikes were mostly closed, we drove to the visitor center to see if we could get stamps for the kids’ passport books. It was closed, sadly. We walked behind the center and there was a little bit of a pathway open with some nice views and signs about the birds in the area, plus a bench.

The main path looked okay from where we were standing, but given the cones and large do-not-enter sign, I’m guessing it got worse closer to the coast. This trail is probably stroller-friendly when it’s open.

We drove a few miles to the Fontainebleau Nature Trail off Hanshaw Road to hike. There were two loop trails (red and green on the map) that run concurrently for a bit in the middle there. We opted to do the shorter green hike, which was about a mile total.

You could go part way with a stroller here, on the gravel and the wood, but once you get to the overlook, you’d need to turn around as there are some narrow parts with big roots to climb over. The kids had a good time climbing on the railing at the overlook, and we took a bunch of photos of them there.

One of the signs talked about bayous, and this was interesting for the kids. Here’s the quote from the sign: “Davis Bayou Salt Marsh: Bayou is a modified Native American word for river. Bayous are not exactly rivers though; the current runs both ways, up and down with the tide. The water of the bayou is a mixture of freshwater and brackish water, varying with seasonal rain. Even though there is very little salt in the water, it still greatly affects the type of plants and animals that can live in the bayou.” I had not known that before. Really interesting.

The rest of the hike went through a pine forest. We only saw one other group (mom and two kids) and there were only two cars when we parked. But when we left, the small lot was pretty full.

After the hike, we went to the beach in Ocean Springs.

Many of the buildings in this area are up on stilts, so it must flood regularly. The kids hadn't seen that before and found it strange and cool.

We stopped at the Rouse’s on the way back to the campground to pick up firewood. Even though we only have one more night here and it’s going to rain later, it will be nice to have fire for the next few hours. It was $6 for about 6 logs, perfect for a few hours. We went back to the campground and while I helped the kids with schoolwork, Vagish built a fire. We had hot dogs and s’mores for dinner, cooked over the fire, which is always fun. We sat around and told jokes (most of which were made up and didn’t make any sense at all) and enjoyed the fire until it started to rain.

It rained really hard our last night, for a lot of hours. Probably from 8pm to 6am. Even though we had tested our tent in the rain back in Ohio and it was mostly fine, that wasn’t the case here. I knew that gap would be an issue, so I duck taped a trash bag over it and thought we’d be good. Not so much. The seams leaked. So the bottom of the tent, by our feet, got really wet as did the left side. I spread my rain jacket across the bottom of the bag, which helped a little. The right, where the four-year-old was in his sleeping bag, was okay. I was next to him and didn’t get wet except for my feet. I think the six-year-old, next to me, was pretty dry. My husband was getting the worst of it. He opened the emergency poncho and pulled it over him, which helped, but not enough. It only got down to about 53 degrees, so it wasn’t very cold, and the down bag did fine keeping us warm even though it was a little wet. We'll definitely need to seal the tent before we sleep out in the rain again.